Podcast about Comics and Pop Culture

batman

In this week’s episode, we talk about the ridiculous situation that Whataburger has with the Wonder Woman logo, and we cannot believe that it is a thing. Seriously reading the article of the PR person from Whataburger makes the whole thing seem like an onion article. There were also a couple movie related pieces of news such as the Batman movie not coming out for at least a year and a half, which does give them time about choosing a Robin to use in the movie, maybe Jason Todd? Maybe Tim Drake? There was also the news of Mark Millar wanting one man to fill the role in his Superior movie. As always you can follow us on facebook and twitter, and if you want to help us out, you can do that by feeling us a rating/review on Itunes, Google Play, or Stitcher Radio. Were also working with another podcast called Metad Podcast, who are two guys who talk about video games and what made them great, so go check them out!

In this week’s episode, we have a new fancy intro and we discuss are favorite things from the DC animated universe from Batman The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, to Teen Titans and Young Justice. We also have our good friends of the show Steve and Rachel on their favorite aspects of the DC animated universe. We also talk about the things that associate with Allen Moore, as he announced his retirement from comics in the next few months. As always, if you can follow us on facebook at facebook.com/z2podcast, and twitter @z2podcast for all sorts of updates and extra thoughts on things going on. If you like this podcast, be sure to either leave us a rating/review, or share it to a friend who might enjoy it.

In this weeks episode, we bring our good friend and favorite listener Jim onto the podcast to talk about some speculation with the Batman solo movie, Inhumans/Xmen ResurrXion, and the Black Lightning tv series that is in the works. We also focus in on this weeks discussion with talk of what made the Teen Titans such an awesome series, and how DC could be sitting on a gold mine of unused potential. Since Jim is a huge green lantern fan, we also wanted to talk with him about why he thinks Green Lantern is excellent and both Zach’s give there opinion of their favorite Green Lantern/s. As always if you like what you hear and what to help us out, go and give us a rating/review or share this to a friend who might enjoy it as well. You can also follow us on facebook.com/z2podcast and twitter, @z2podcast for all sorts of extra stuff. Without further ado, here is the longest running podcast to date, episode 25.

In this week’s episode, we discuss all the things that were rumored to be coming out that are still not and the things that are coming out that were thought to be in development hell, like the Justice League Dark film, not the animated one but the live action film! We also discuss about all of the impending fallout from the Hail Hydra Steve Rogers and the end of the first Detective Comics story arc from Rebirth. As always we want to hear from you the lovely listeners. What do you like about the show? What should be improve on or change? Let us know by either commenting on facebook.com/z2podcast, twitter @z2podcast, or leave us a rating/review wherever you listen from! Thanks everyone, we have some extra content in the works as well so be sure to follow those places as well to get updates of when those come out!

In this week’s episode, we talk about all endings of the story arcs for Batman, Green Arrow, and Wicked and the Divine and how those stories will shape up moving forward. There was also the big announcement of the casting of MJ in Marvel’s Spiderman movie, which once again has the internet up in arms. Luckily we have some wise words from comic creators to lend us a hand of how to properly deal with it. Zach also goes on another one of his infamous Superman rants with a new theory with everything thats happened with the comics as of late. As always if you like what you hear, help us out by giving us a rating/review where ever you listen from, or leave a comment! You can also follow us on facebook and twitter, facebook.com/z2podcast and @z2podcast.

In this week’s episode, if you can guess by the title we talk about All Star Batman that came out this past week! So nice to have Scotty Synder back on Batman. There was also nothing but DC news this week that we talk about including tv news, movie, news and exclusive contract announcements for artists and writers! It was a pretty good week for DC as a whole despite the whole Suicide Squad review and dropping at the box office. With that in mind we discuss if we think people rely on reviews to much or if its a justified approach to viewing entertainment. Be on the look out later this week for our Superfight episode we recorded with #ThinkingOutsidetheLongbox which was a ton of fun, so don’t miss that on Friday. If you like what you hear, be sure to either follow us on your listening platform of choice, facebook: facebook.com/z2podcast, twitter: @z2podcast, leave us a rating/review, and/or share this podcast to a friend!

So one of the things I want to start doing on the website is jot down some ideas that I want to mention after we get done recording or where I am struck by something particularly deep throughout the week. My hope with this small system is that it gives you all, the listeners and viewers, to get time to pick into our brains and it gives me some more time to practice some of my good old writing abilities.

So legacy. There are many heroes who have had many people uphold their identity: Batman IS Bruce Wayne, but Jean Paul Valley, Dick Grayson, and James Gordon have all been canon versions of Batman with varying degrees of success in the city of Gotham. We now live in an age where the hero is replaced by another character much like how Jim Gordon became Batman while Bruce Wayne was amnesiac and the legacy of that character and the symbol of what that character means has become the most important part of that hero.

One of my favorite quotations by Scott Snyder on the aspect of Batman and his run from 2011 to whenever since he seems to never stop writing the character is that “Our Batman, to me, is kind of a figure of inspiration, and a little bit about sort of getting out of your house and being brave when you’re facing your personal demons or you’re facing problems that seem too big to solve on a national level or global level.” Batman, not Bruce Wayne, exists as a character who rises to the occasion and tells you that the world outside is scary, but you can do whatever it is that you fear or that you can be brave when in the face of darkness. Snyder goes on to say that Batman says “I’m going to fight it best I can so that you can get up and fight and take baby steps towards the things that might be insurmountable in your life.”

Batman as a legacy gives people the strength and courage to do what they need to. Dick Grayson moved away from the role of the Dark Knight and became Nightwing to establish himself, but there is something about the character, about the calling of Batman that drew him in after Bruce’s death in Final Crisis. It wasn’t so much an obligation to Bruce or to Gotham, but was very much a calling to show that hope and inspiration can survive through the darkness of a place like Gotham. Nightwing traveling the city alone is very different than DickBats taking on the villains of Gotham.

Batman as a force is something that inspires people. Why do you think villains, the very people that Batman fight decide to take on the symbol themselves. From someone like Jason Todd who embraced the identity of Batman in Battle for the Cowl to Bane, Hugo Strange, Harvey Dent and even Deathstroke found something special in the identity of Batman. To take it a step even further, Bruce Wayne established Batman Incorporated in Grant Morrison’s run of the same name where people all over the world took on the symbol of the Bat and found some sort of meaning behind it. It used to baffle me that someone like Kate Kane wanted to be Batwoman; however, she never joined the Bat-family because she did not want to be someone else’s soldier. She accepted what the symbol meant in Gotham and wanted to protect people in a way she could not in her civilian identity.

What I think I am trying to get at is Batman is pretty important and his symbol, his status, as the watchful guardian is something that is important to people and takes on a sense and belief of power. Even in Detective Comics 936, Jacob Kane, Batwoman’s father, notices that Batman is a status symbol, one with power, but is misused by Bruce Wayne himself. He sees the Batman symbol as a militant force not something that is meant to clean up the city and redeem Gotham when it very well does not see itself redeemable.

I think the basic gist of everything I have talked about so far is that legacy is important, it is something that is meant to be protected and then upheld so that other people could look up to that archetype perhaps.

We live in the world where characters move in a very organic manner and possibly outgrow their role or they give their blessing to someone else to fight on with their name. We have seen Odinson give Jane Foster his blessing and calling her worthy, we have seen Captain America pass on his iconic shield to Sam Wilson and take on a new shield even, and now Tony Stark’s Iron Man mantle is being passed to a new character, Riri Williams, and the one and only Victor Von Doom.

I have a lot of thoughts about this new Marvel shake-up. Though right now I can’t really speak on it because Riri has appeared in four issues of the comic on two or three pages at a time. Doctor Doom himself has been a supporting character and this is going to be his FIRST ongoing title since his inception. I really enjoy how Marvel writes rookie characters who are learning to go through things, look at Miles or Kamala. I also enjoy how Marvel has villains trying to do the right thing like with AXIS Carnage. I am not sure how these characters are going to make their way into the legacy of Iron Man, and who knows how long it will last (when does Avengers Infinity War come out again?). The success of this strategy where Marvel takes a new hero and puts them into a new role works, people buy the book, people buy into the character once they get to know them. Brian Michael Bendis is taking the time to develop this character when Civil War II ends in a few months, that much we know since she is appearing on and off again and Tony is now aware of her existence.

This is not a “diversity push” as some people want to call it, but it is more of a way to bring out characters that more readers would be interested in. I had friends who never read comics until someone like Ms. Marvel came along as her own character with a powerful creative team. What I’m trying to say is that this is not some corporate mandate to make characters of other race or backgrounds take the roles of your characters, they still exist, they stood for something for that character. Why else in the world would someone new want to take on their name? Yes, you can tell me that these are only fictional characters who have no personality outside of a printed page, but hey they exist and they have their own agenda that is different from their “parent” even.

You can say that Iron Man is not about the suit, that Iron Man is Tony Stark, but look at the current state of comics where he is passing down his role whether it is intentional or not to someone who wants to make a difference. That is the concept of legacy. That is the truth that exists in the world of literature to me. You become a symbol, you take on the symbol so that you can become something you never thought you would before.

In this week’s episode, we talk about the upcoming marvel news of the potential Captain Marvel in the MCU, Civil War II, and all of the first DC Rebirth issues! It was a super slow news week so we spend a heavy amount of time discussing the first Civil War II issue, who’s side were on, even though hate the whole picking sides thing, and how it will play into the overall story. We also talk about the new story arcs for Green Arrow, Green Lanterns, Batman, and Superman, since we got our first look at them in their Rebirth issues. As always be sure to follow us on Facebook , facebook.com/z2podcast and twitter @z2podcast, and be sure to subscribe and give us a review on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher radio, and if you have any ideas for future discussions be sure to send us a message or tweet. Enjoy this weeks episode!

This week, we took a trip down to Hall of Justice Comics to have a discussion with shop owner Jon about his favorite comic book character, some interesting things about running a comic book shop, our predictions for Captain America: Civil War, and the fianl issue of Scott Synder and Greg Capullo’s Batman run. As always please help us out by subscribing on itunes, stitcher, or google play, it really help us out and remember to follow us on facebook and twitter, Facebook.com/z2podcast and @Z2podcast.

*Disclosure: Still messing with audio setups so bare with us while we get that figured out*

This week, we discuss the animated Killing Joke teaser that was released, as well as talk about the things that Batman and Robin Eternal set up for future series. We also talk about how great a book Omega Men is and why you should read it!
There was supposed to be an ad at the end but the audio got messed up.